The Man Who Wasn't All There
by Funky In Fishnet
Summary: The BDK's control over Delirious is fracturing fast, so Mike Quackenbush tries to find him before they do.


_**Disclaimer:** I own nothing._

_**Author Note: **Set during the 2011 King of Trios tournament when Delirious seemed to remember who he was for a moment before running away. I should have posted this sooner :S_

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**THE MAN WHO WASN'T ALL THERE (AGAIN)**

The Philadelphia Asylum Arena always brought out the unexpected in people. Maybe because it had birthed ECW and some of that crazy still lingered. That would explain why Mike Quackenbush suddenly started cursing as he headed backstage. He _never_ usually cursed. But he was doing it now in the Asylum, though it was under his breath so maybe it didn't really count.

Nobody was around backstage anyway - everybody was watching the current match instead. Mike had other things to think about, like where Delirious had run off to. He clearly hadn't been in any kind of right mind when the BDK's grip on him had started fraying. He could be anywhere. A lot of stuff could have happened and yeah, Mike was concerned.

Delirious had always been strange. Over half of Chikara's roster owned that characteristic. But he'd also always been a _technico,_ and a weird kind of friend. He didn't deserve the sick mind-trip of being hypnotized and put under the total control of UltraMantis Black and the BDK. And he didn't deserve whatever freak-out was currently lashing around his very screwed-up head.

Mike looked around. He was getting deeper into the bowels of the arena. Soon he wasn't going to have a clue where he was. And there was still no sign of Delirious. Great.

_Clang...clang...clang._

Mike paused. The noise kept on coming and it was getting louder. Something was striking hard against metal, in a clearly abandoned section of the arena. It was as good a sign as any. Mike picked up the pace.

He was rewarded less than a minute later when he found a metal staircase. Cowering underneath and kicking at the shelter was Delirious. He'd torn off his white BDK head-covering mask, his body covered in sweat and his chest heaving with labored breaths. He looked like he needed a straitjacket.

Mike crouched down. He had no idea how to approach this. Did he reach out? Did he say something? Did he call an ambulance? Or a psychic? Whatever the right thing was, he had to do it now and get Delirious out before the BDK tracked them down and messed with Delirious's mind again.

Mike cleared his throat. Delirious immediately began scrambling backwards, twisting his body into a really impressively-contorted pretzel, and muttering nonsensical stuff. At least he was talking.

"Hey." Mike pitched his voice low. Was that less frightening? He had no clue. Delirious wasn't somebody who got scared easy. Thank you, BDK and UltraMantis Black for screwing things up so completely.

Mike tried again. "Hey, you want to come out of there? I swear I'm alone."

Delirious actually whimpered. That was new and disturbing. But he wasn't trying to disappear into the wall anymore so maybe that was progress. Maybe hearing Mike's voice instead of the BDK's helped. Mike chanced moving closer so that he was hidden under the stairs too. Delirious looked at him, still muttering under his breath. He didn't sound angry. Perhaps the jewel's hold on him was actually breaking permanently this time. Thank God.

They had to get moving before the Spectral Envoy lost track of the BDK. Mike kept talking.

"We need to get out of here."

Delirious tilted his head. His body unwound, and he definitely looked a few notches lower on the crazy scale. Mike jerked his head towards the hallway. He had one big card left to play which would have definitely appealed to the old Delirious. Maybe it would get through now…

"There's a great fried-chicken place on the next block. I'm buying."

Delirious muttered again, his words strung together fast, and showed his teeth, but it almost looked like a smile this time. He righted himself onto his haunches and crawled towards Mike. Mike tried not to back up. Delirious seemed back to his old self but there was no way of knowing whether or not he might suddenly slip under again and start punching.

He didn't. He seemed almost….careful though as he crawled to Mike's side and deliberately bumped against his shoulder. Then Delirious cleared his throat.

"Quack." His voice sounded rusty, like he hadn't spoken any actual coherent English in a long time. "Quack, quack, quack!"

Just like the fans always chanted at Mike. Only now the words were coming out short and feral like barks. Like Delirious. That was something.

Mike levered himself up and out from under the stairs. Delirious followed, his body and head moving in a familiar jerky rhythm. He jabbered out a stream of sounds and almost-words, his hands gesturing to his clothes.

"Hey, that's all the BDK."

More jabbering. Mike raised his eyebrows. It probably said a lot of unfortunate things about him that he understood everything Delirious garbled out.

"You'll get as many shots as you want at Claudio and Ares. UltraMantis too."

Delirious sounded excited. Mike signaled for him to keep the volume down. The BDK weren't stupid. They'd track down Delirious if he noisily stayed in one place for too long.

"Come on, let's get out of here."

Delirious snapped his teeth at thin air, clearly already planning what he was going to do to his former masters. Mike grinned, that was going to be awesome, just seeing the look on Claudio's face. Anything that shocked and unnerved the BDK was a very good thing. And Delirious was furious enough to take on and devastate UltraMantis Black too, the figure who would soon inevitably be grabbing back his Most Hated Man in CHIKARA moniker, once he'd helped destroy the people currently occupying that spot of course – the BDK.

Yeah, it was good to have Delirious back, biting and yammering and all.

Mike started to lead the way towards the nearest exit. Delirious muttered, bouncing on his toes and clawing at the empty air. Mike snorted in reply. Yeah, like that was going to happen.

"You want beer, you're buying."

_-the end_


End file.
